Steve Simms's Blog, page 72

Thank who? (A Thanksgiving Quiz)

Who do you say thank you to . . . (check all that apply)

A server in a restaurant?A clerk in a store?A client or customer?Your doctor?Your barber or hair stylist?Your mechanic?The person who delivers packages to your door? Someone who is kind to you?]Everyone who helps or serves you in any way?Your father?Your mother?Your siblings?Your children?Your friends?Your neighbors?God the Father?God the Son (the risen Jesus)?God the Holy Spirit?None of the above?

True gratitude is more than passive sentimentalism. It includes saying: “Thank you.” Thanksgiving Day isn’t about having a happy day (or wishing others one). It’s about actually telling people and God, “Thank You.”

Thank you for reading this and taking the quiz. May your heart and life overflow with thanksgiving today!

It’s nice to wish people a happy Thanksgiving Day. It’s more in line with the name of the day to actually thank them for something. (Thanksgiving is a great day to open your mouth and say, “Thank You, Jesus,” loudly and clearly! Give it a go today!)

See more, realize more, and experience more of God’s glory. To repent is to look unto Jesus and to align our heart and will with Him. The more we open our eyes and delight in Christ’s light the more we are delivered from darkness and the more our heart is strangely warmed and molded from glory to glory into His likeness.

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How To Avoid Hollow Days During The Holidays

Holiday hype is hollow and seldom satisfies the human heart. Jesus was born once, not once a year. Because of Jesus we can be born again and transformed by His presence.

Superficial holidays frequently feel like hollow days. Open your heart and dig deeper into the true meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas and experience the supernatural reality behind them.

The Hollow-Day Season? Thanksgiving without a sincere “Thank You, Jesus,” and Christmas without a heart-felt “Praise You, Jesus,” make for an empty Hollow-Day Season.

Hollow days are seldom happy. Hollow days echo with loneliness and create a mental daze without end. Let the risen Jesus who was born in Bethlehem fill your days with hope.

The holidays that make me happy involve thanking God and adoring Jesus! Every day’s a good day to say, “Thank You, Jesus!”

The best Christmas decorations are when Christ decorates your heart with His presence. When Jesus is truly living inside of you, every day is Christmas! Christ’s forgiveness can give you a white Christmas every day. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

Holidays?
If you’re experiencing
A hollow daze
During the holidays,
Turn your gaze
And your praise
Toward Jesus
And let Him raise
Your level of peace.

If you’ll let God’s Spirit
Fill your days
With His praise
The mental haze
Will clear
And you’ll hear
Him speaking
In your inner ear.

Holiday noise
And distracting
Traditions and toys
Often keep us from
Experiencing the true joys
Of celebrating the birth
And experiencing the presence
Of the living Jesus Christ.

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Using the keys to the kingdom of God

Jesus Christ is the living, present King who is calling us to personally, intimately, and corporately align with the kingdom of God. To be a part of a kingdom is to be led by a king. Citizens of the kingdom of God are supposed to be led by the risen King Jesus working in and through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave His followers the keys to God’s kingdom. He said that we can use them to lock (to bind) and to unlock (to loose), but what are we supposed to lock and to unlock? We need to lock and shut down every thought, feeling, desire, action, word, belief, or opinion that hinders God’s will and to unlock and release every one that aligns with God’s will.

To know God’s will we need to always be ready and willing to hear and obey what God’s Spirit is saying in and through our conscience. We need to daily read the Scriptures with an open heart and to ponder and obey them throughout the day. And we need to connect heart-to-heart with other Christ-followers who are connected heart-to-heart with, listening to, and obeying the risen King Jesus.

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The question I was asked as a 10-year-old

Daily writing promptIf you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?View all responses

I grew up in a non-religious, non-church-going family in the Bible Belt. (We finally started regularly attending a church when I was in junior high school, but I didn’t like it.) Once when I was about 10 years old my family visited a small church and I found myself in a kid’s Sunday School class of a few children. I was expecting a religious lesson, but instead the teacher asked today’s writing prompt: “If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be?” (Her wording might have been slightly different, but that was her question.)

Then the teacher called on each child and they gave various answers. One kid answered Jesus Christ. When it became my turn to speak out in that historical roll call, I also answered Jesus. The teacher acted like Jesus was just like the other interesting historical figures — dead and gone. She used the rest of the class to give us moral lessons from the dead people we had mentioned and left us thinking that Jesus was no more than an ethical example to teach us to behave properly.

It was about nine years later when I learned that that class was a lie! I discovered firsthand that the eternal God who became a man as Jesus Christ isn’t dead stuck in the past or passively waiting for the future. He’s alive, present, and active here and now! In a moment something incredible happened in my heart and Jesus became more real to me than my physical surroundings. I’ve never been the same.

I met a historical figure who died and rose again and has been my constant companion and best friend ever since that moment. History is truly His story and Jesus invites all people to let Him be their closest friend and personal guide through life. We are called to live in a glorious now with the risen Jesus, not just to long for Him in the past or in the future. Will you?

The elephant in the universe is its grand design and intricate precision. From the smallest atoms to the human Adams everything in the universe is assembled in astonishing ways.

Perhaps a better question (writing prompt) is: “What is me?” What is this conscious awareness and sense of being within me? I believe it’s a reflection of the Being who made me.

As I was writing this as a visitor in someone’s home, I realized that I needed a picture to go with it. I glanced to my right and noticed the spine of a particular book on a bookshelf. I walked over and pulled it out and it’s the perfect picture for this post: Guns, Germs, And Steel — The Fates of Human Societies.

All human societies end. The risen, eternal Jesus never does.

When your instincts stink, let your conscience fumigate your heart.

Daily writing promptDo you trust your instincts?View all responses

Sometimes instincts stink. That’s when it’s important to let your conscience fumigate your heart.

I’ve never been able to trust my instincts (my innate desires and behavior patterns) to lead me to joy, inner peace, and general wellbeing. When I abandon logic to follow my own feelings and desires, they tend to produce varying degrees of misery, anxiety, and trouble for me.

However, there is something within me that I have discovered that I can trust. That’s my conscience. When I obey its quiet inner voice (even when I prefer to do something else), it steers me clear of the pitfalls of my destructive desires, feelings, and thoughts and guides me to guilt free living.

I believe that Jesus, who rose from the dead and continues to interact with human beings today, speaks through my conscience (and yours). If that true, nothing on earth is more important than to listen to and obey Him. That’s called discipleship.

When Christianity abandoned discipleship, it jumped ship and sank into routine religion. Discipleship avoids the person who is causing most of your problems (that person is you) by continually surrendering yourself to the risen Jesus. Then, by His Spirit, He will lead and direct you infinitely more effectively that you are able to run your own life.

I sincerely believe that God’s good news involves pointing people to His spiritual glue that connects the body of Christ heart-to-heart — the living, resurrected Jesus, and encouraging people to go beyond church as usual and to surrender directly to and daily obey Jesus with no intermediary. Martin Luther called that “the priesthood of the believer” and most Protestants (including preachers) celebrate Luther’s bold stand.

Regularly
Sitting through a sermon
Until the sermon’s through
Is not God’s spiritual glue
That connects people
Heart-to-heart.

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Finding hope during bleak weather

Daily writing promptWhat’s your favorite month of the year? Why?View all responses

January offers the opportunity for a fresh start during the darkest month of the year. When made and persistently maintained by hope and faith, New Year’s resolutions can turn into life-changing inner revolutions. Every year January 1 reminds people that they can alter their course by discovering and embracing hope with their whole heart.

When hope lights up your heart you can experience peace in a world that’s falling apart. Hope’s not spontaneous. Unless it’s intentionally planted and cultivated in your heart it won’t automatically sprout and grow. Make your heart a home for hope.

A heart that rejects hope is beyond repair. Give hope a chance. While you’re breathing there’s hope. Once you’re dead it’ll be too late for hope.

People who carry hope high in their heart create hope wherever they go. Hoist high your hope.

Hopelessness is a sad word. Trim it down to the first 4 letters! It’s hard to find hope if you’re looking for it in all the wrong places. Hunt for hope outside of your familiar discomfort zone. Dare to dash through the door of simple heart-felt happiness.

The world needs
More hope
And less
Hopelessness.

Hopeless resolutions
Offer no solutions
For overcoming
Mental and emotional
Inertia and despair.
We need a heart-change,
Of life-transforming
Inner revolutions.

Hunting hope
Helps people cope
Much better than
Doing dope.

When you’re
In a mess
That feels hopeless,
Invite hope
To reduce your stress.

Hope
Opens
People up to
Encouragment.

Darkness and confusion
Create much illusion.
Without an infusion
Of heart-felt hope
We reach a false conclusion
And embrace delusion.
Search for hope to find it.

People who
Say nope
To hope
Jump into
A sinking boat.

Let hope
Be your soap
On a rope.
Always keep it
Closely tied
To your heart.

Addiction
To hope
Will help
You cope.

Is Jesus just a story?
Or is “Christ in you
The hope of glory”?

Even Christians need more hope. We need to be more committed to following and obeying the living Jesus than we are to attending church programs.

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Can hardships harbor hope?

The New Testament calls Christians disciples — trained and disciplined Christ-followers. When Paul and Barnabas wanted to strengthen the disciples and to encourage them to remain true to the faith, they told them: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-28.) How is that the sound of encouragement?

Hardships cause true Christ followers to humbly and deeply need each other and to rely more and more on the risen Jesus as our present King, Lord, and Master as we are drawn together in genuine, heart-felt, Christ-led community. To further strengthen and encourage the body of Christ, Paul and Barnabus appointed groups of elders, mature believers to be servant overseers in each Spirit-led, open-sharing community of disciples (see 1 Corinthians 14:26) named and modeled after the ekklesia, the participatory town hall meetings in Greek cities. Then “with prayer and fasting” they “committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”

The early Christians didn’t trust in organization or human hierarchy and authority. (See Matthew 20: 25-28.) Their trust was in the living Jesus. They wanted to follow Him and as they did, they lived out the 50+ one another commands of the New Testament, in their daily lives and when they met together. Mature believers served as elders/overseers to keep the focus on everyone listening to and obeying the risen Jesus from their heart, and not on mere outward forms of godliness or on human hierarchy and control. They let their trials and tribulations continually connect their hearts to each other with Spirit-given compassion and caring for one another. They overflowed with joy and love from the real presence of Christ living and working inside and through them.

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Do all lives matter?

The two most accepted and applauded ways to end human life are war and abortion. People attempt to justify such cruelty by using phrases like “collateral damage” and “reproductive rights.” This clearly shows that for many people all lives don’t matter.

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My heart is mysteriously open.

Daily writing promptWhat’s the first impression you want to give people?View all responses

When I first encounter people, I want them to know that I’m open to them and that I’m willing to listen to and encourage them from the mysterious warmth in my heart. When I meet strangers, I often feel a compassionate love for them that blows my mind. There’s no rational reason for such caring, but there it is mysteriously rising within me.

Listening to people’s stories makes me realize that sinning (seeking to satisfy yourself) isn’t winning, no matter how good it feels. There’s no victory in following feelings. Ignoring or resisting the voice of conscience will never make people whole. The only hope of glory is letting Christ live in and control you as your absolute, moment-by-moment, King, Lord, and Master and to let Him continually align your heart and lifestyle with His loving will.

To be won over, the world needs to see Christ-followers who are continually full of the presence and joy of Jesus and aren’t looking for entertainment, comfort, self-fulfillment, or strength anywhere else! If you’re not happy it may be because you’ve been searching for happiness in happy-less people, places, and things. Open your heart to the joy of the risen Jesus!

The Spirit-led lifestyle of Christ-consumed people who ever overflow with the fruit and the gifts of God’s Spirit will visibly demonstrate the reality of the risen Jesus and win multitudes of disciples for Him! That’s the first impression that I want to give people.

I want people to know that if they will quit trying to work up self-forgiveness and instead humbly receive Christ’s living presence and full forgiveness, their guilt will go away. I want them to know that:

If you will read God’s Scriptures
As a love letter from Jesus
He will paint awesome pictures
On the canvas of your heart.

I’m a native English speaker reading a Spanish Bible

Daily writing promptWhat book are you reading right now?View all responses

For almost a year I’ve been reading a Spanish Bible every day. I’m focusing on the New Testament and I’m almost through it for the second time this year. It’s not been easy because my Spanish was quite limited when I began. However, I’ve noticed that week by week and month by month I’m understanding more and more. Gloria a Dios! It’s fun and encouraging to watch my understanding grow.

I’ve read the Bible almost every day since I was in college, so I know the history and teachings very well. When I read it in Spanish my familiarity with the Bible helps me recognize unfamiliar Spanish words and grammar. It also gives me some biblical insights that I have never noticed before while reading the Bible in English. It’s fun to read Jesus and His first followers speaking in Spanish.

I’m still discovering that the Bible is a miraculous book. No matter what language you read it in, the Spirit of the living God will speak to your heart if you read it with openness and humility.

To abandon either focus on and obedience to the risen Jesus or biblically aligned theology is to abandon Christianity. We need both!

Jesus
Sees us
Even if
We hide.